The study said suicide prevention strategies needed to target those who lose their jobs even in countries unaffected by recession.
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Unemployment in good times or bad is a far bigger factor in suicides than an economic crisis, accounting for nine times as many deaths, according to a study.

The recent economic downturn has caused about 5,000 deaths in 63 countries, whereas unemployment over the period 2000 to 2011 was responsible for 45,000, an analysis in the journal Lancet Psychiatry has found.

The authors say their findings suggest that suicide prevention strategies need to target those who lose their jobs even in countries unaffected by recession. They found the suicide risk among the unemployed was stronger where more people were in work and the situation of the jobless was therefore more unusual.

According to lead author Dr Carlos Nordt, of Zurich University’s Psychiatric Hospital, it is not just losing a job but the stressful and uncertain months before it happens, when companies might be looking to make redundancies, that cause suicides.

“Our findings reveal that the suicide rate increases six months before a rise in unemployment. What is more, our data suggests that not all job losses necessarily have an equal impact, as the effect on suicide risk appears to be stronger in countries where being out of work is uncommon.

“It is possible that an unexpected increase in the unemployment rate may trigger greater fears and insecurity than in countries with higher pre-crisis unemployment levels.”

Between 2000 and 2011, the relative risk of suicide associated with unemployment rose by 20% to 30% in all regions, the paper says. Of an estimated 233,000 suicides each year in the 63 countries, which range from Kyrgyzstan to Japan, Russia, Romania, Denmark, Germany, the UK, Mexico, Canada and the US, one in five were due to unemployment.

Unemployment was linked with 41,148 suicides in 2007 and 46,131 in 2009, suggesting that 4,983 excess suicides were associated with the economic crisis in 2008.

The researchers used data on suicide and the economy from the World Health Organisation’s mortality database and the International Monetary Fund’s world economic outlook database to calculate the effect of unemployment rates on suicide rates in four world regions, and in different age and sex groups. They found that men and women were equally vulnerable to losing their job.

Nordt said that governments could help reduce suicide risks by investing “in active labour market policies that enhance the efficiency of labour markets [which] could help generate additional jobs and reduce the unemployment rate”.

In a commentary on the paper in the journal, Roger Webb and Navneet Kapur, from the University of Manchester in the UK, warned that suicide cases attributable to the global recession are likely to be only “the tip of the iceberg” of a wider range of social and psychological problems.

“Many affected individuals who remain in work during these hard times encounter serious psychological stressors due to pernicious economic strains other than un­employment, including falling income, zero­-hour contracting, job insecurity, bankruptcy, debt, and home repossession,” they wrote.

“Caution should therefore be exercised… [As well as death by suicide], we also require a better understanding of other psychosocial manifestations of economic adversity, including non-fatal self-harm, stress and anxiety, low mood, hopelessness, alcohol problems, anger, familial conflict and relationship breakdown. We also need to know how and why highly resilient individuals who experience the greatest levels of economic adversity manage to sustain favourable mental health and wellbeing.”